Aquarist Atlas
↑ Collection form of Tangachromis dhanisi

Tangachromis dhanisi "Chituta Bay"

Chituta Bay — chee-TOO-tah BAY (approx.)

The fish

How this cichlid is built, and everything about how it lives, eats and breeds, is shared with the species — this page doesn't repeat it.

Read the full Tangachromis dhanisi account →

Specific to Chituta Bay

  • Collection locality & coordinates
  • Local coloration — best judged from the living-fish photo
  • Kept as a single-provenance line, never crossed with other collection points

Care facts below are the species' — shared with Tangachromis dhanisi.

IUCNLEAST CONCERN · 2006
CARESNOT LISTED
Scientific size3.3 in8.5 cm total length
Temperature75–81 °F24–27 °C
pH8.6–9.3alkaline
Depth66–328 ft20–100 m
DietMicro-invertebrate/zooplankton feeder
BreedingPresumed biparental mouthbrooderUndocumented for the species; small clutch typical of the tribe Limnochromini
Sexual dimorphismYesSubtle: males reach a slightly larger size; the species lacks the strong nuptial color dimorphism of littoral cichlids.
PhotographsSee photosGoogle Images →

The Chituta Bay population

Tangachromis dhanisi "Chituta Bay" is the Chituta Bay population of Tangachromis dhanisi, a geographic colour form from the Zambia coast of Lake Tanganyika in the southern part of the lake. It is the same species as Tangachromis dhanisi, distinguished by its collection locality and local coloration; aquarists keep and breed it as a discrete, provenance-labelled line.

Colour reference: living Chituta Bay fish at tanganyika.si →

About the species

Tangachromis dhanisi is a small, big-eyed cichlid that lives in the dim offshore depths of Lake Tanganyika, drifting in loose shoals over sunken mud and sand plains far from any reef. It is the only species in its genus and a member of the deep-water tribe Limnochromini, a lineage of biparental mouthbrooders that the aquarium world rarely sees. Described by Max Poll in 1949 from a Belgian survey of the lake, it makes its living picking copepods and other tiny zooplankton out of the open water near the bottom — an unglamorous, profundal specialist that most cichlid keepers have never laid eyes on.

Full Tangachromis dhanisi account →

Sources

  1. tanganyika.si — Tangachromis dhanisi "Chituta Bay"
  2. FishBase — Tangachromis dhanisi (Poll, 1949)
  3. Catalog of Fishes (Eschmeyer) — Tangachromis dhanisi species record
  4. GBIF — Tangachromis dhanisi (Poll, 1949), taxon key 2372173
  5. iNaturalist — Tangachromis dhanisi
  6. Duftner et al. 2005 — Evolutionary relationships of the Limnochromini, a tribe of benthic deepwater cichlid fish endemic to Lake Tanganyika (J. Mol. Evol.)